Stolen Day

It really did feel like a stolen day today. It was absolutely beautiful outside, and on a weekend, no less, and that almost never happens! We ran all of our errands in town as quickly as we could, but still got home late, around 2:00. We rushed into gardening grungy clothes and got outside as quickly as we could.

Frank concentrated on finishing spreading the last of the surepak on the driveway. If we didn’t get that finished we would lose the small pile we had left, because it was right in the way of where the snowplow guy piles up our snow, so it would have been spread out just where we don’t want it.

PB220005.jpg Then, since he had the tractor out and about, he filled in the giant hole left in the lawn from when we had that huge rock pulled out. I remember scraping the lawnmower on the rock, and then when Mark dug it out with his backhoe, it left a hole probably three feet deep and ten feet long or something. That spot has looked horrible all summer, but at least it’s now filled in.

I’d been hauling the last of the firewood for the downstairs stove, and got everything moved that’s been cut, at least. There’s still a cartload out there that still needs to be cut, but Frank is willing to let winter come now, he says. He stacked it all down below after I’d hauled it, and we heard something crash just as we came inside, but we haven’t seen the damage yet. All that work stacking, just to have it collapse.

But on one of my trips around back, I brought back the grass seed and starter fertilizer we’d bought earlier this year, and got that newly filled in spot all finished. I leveled the dirt as best I could, then spread out the fertilizer pellets as evenly as I could just using my hand. Then I spread the grass seed very thickly. We didn’t have straw or hay to put on top of it, and I thought about using shredded leaves, but Frank didn’t think it would stay put very well with the windy fall we’ve been having. So I had him bring over another scoop load on the tractor of the loam, and we used the compost screen to sift it, and I spread that sifted loam very lightly on top of the grass seed. Here’s hoping it all works. I doubt anything will sprout this fall because it’s so late, but it should be ready to go first thing in the spring. I’m really glad to have it done.

Chores still left to do — bring in all the hoses. Try to finish one of the raised beds? Or, we could spread compost and mulch. I’d prefer to get a bed done, if we have the time. Tomorrow is supposed to be almost as nice as today, and we don’t have to go to town at all, so we should be able to stay outside and play until we exhaust ourselves.

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